Developer hasn't transferred adoption of sewer but wants us to complete

jrbarnes9

Hi,

I have just been served 10 days noticed to complete on a new build by the housing developer.

However, my solicitor has warned me that the sewers of the new estate are yet to be adopted by the water board.

Our mortgage lender refuses to release the money until the responsibility has been handed over, otherwise we would be held responsible for any problems.

Our developer has been dragging their heels on this after our solicitor has been on at them to apply for this adoption for a long time.

What should I do? Could the developer legally refuse to sell me the house because I've taken longer than their 10 days to complete, even though it's their fault that the sewage adoption has not been transferred yet?

BitterAndTwisted

I can't see how they can force you to complete if they haven't held up their side of the bargain. Leave it to your solicitor to sort out, that's what you're paying them for.

Richard_Webster

This is really a load of nonsense.

It assumes that all the sewers will eventually be adopted which may not be the case. Very often there will be a private sewer run connecting up groups of houses and this will be intended to stay private. So you have a drain which links your house to a sewer (usually a private one) and this will run for a short distance - perhaps through the gardens of 4-8 houses and then join the sewer that will eventually be adopted. This adoptable sewer will go for a distance before it joins a sewer that is already a public one.

Now the point is that usually we don't get to see where the adoptable sewer will go and where the private sewers will be. l So you could have a very short length of private sewer or a direct connect to an adoptable sewer which could then go for half a mile before it joined a public sewer. In that case if it was never adopted you and your neighbours could have a problem if the sewer got blocked or needed repair because it would be up to you to share any costs involved.

On the other hand it could be that there is a 100m length of sewer intended to stay private (which will always be a shared responsibility) and then the builder is going to lay an adoptable sewer for 10m to connect into an existing public sewer. In this case the difference in possible repair cost between 100m and 110m if the sewer is never adopted is negligible. Private sewers do need to be repaired, but many exist for years without any issues. My house was built in 1953 and has a private sewer connection for 100-200m before it joins an adopted sewer and the private sewer has never be4en blocked in all that time.

What is even sillier is that the logic of it is that a solicitor acting on the purchase of say a 1960/70s estate house (where there are typically great length of private sewers) should refuse to complete until the private sewer is adopted. They don't, so why make the fuss about new houses? Lenders are not saying that they will not lend on such houses, so why make such a fuss about a length of new sewer?

The drainage search shows the presence of adopted sewers near a property so if there are none nearby a buyer can be warned that there could be greater than average possible liability if there was a need for repair. However just because the drainage search plan shows a publicly adopted sewer near the house being purchased and the search says that the property is connected to the public system, does not mean that it is connected to the nearest public sewer - there could be a 1/2 mile run of private sewer to another public sewer. This is one of the stupidities of drainage searches.

Our mortgage lender refuses to release the money until the responsibility has been handed over, otherwise we would be held responsible for any problems.

I doubt it is actually your lender, more likely the solicitor is who is being incredibly overcautious on the lender's behalf, but as I have demonstrated this is all illogical.

Does your solicitor know where this piece of unadopted sewer is and how long it is?

Richard_Webster

This is really a load of nonsense.

It assumes that all the sewers will eventually be adopted which may not be the case. Very often there will be a private sewer run connecting up groups of houses and this will be intended to stay private. So you have a drain which links your house to a sewer (usually a private one) and this will run for a short distance - perhaps through the gardens of 4-8 houses and then join the sewer that will eventually be adopted. This adoptable sewer will go for a distance before it joins a sewer that is already a public one.

Now the point is that usually we don't get to see where the adoptable sewer will go and where the private sewers will be. l So you could have a very short length of private sewer or a direct connect to an adoptable sewer which could then go for half a mile before it joined a public sewer. In that case if it was never adopted you and your neighbours could have a problem if the sewer got blocked or needed repair because it would be up to you to share any costs involved.

On the other hand it could be that there is a 100m length of sewer intended to stay private (which will always be a shared responsibility) and then the builder is going to lay an adoptable sewer for 10m to connect into an existing public sewer. In this case the difference in possible repair cost between 100m and 110m if the sewer is never adopted is negligible. Private sewers do need to be repaired, but many exist for years without any issues. My house was built in 1953 and has a private sewer connection for 100-200m before it joins an adopted sewer and the private sewer has never be4en blocked in all that time.

What is even sillier is that the logic of it is that a solicitor acting on the purchase of say a 1960/70s estate house (where there are typically great length of private sewers) should refuse to complete until the private sewer is adopted. They don't, so why make the fuss about new houses? Lenders are not saying that they will not lend on such houses, so why make such a fuss about a length of new sewer?

The drainage search shows the presence of adopted sewers near a property so if there are none nearby a buyer can be warned that there could be greater than average possible liability if there was a need for repair. However just because the drainage search plan shows a publicly adopted sewer near the house being purchased and the search says that the property is connected to the public system, does not mean that it is connected to the nearest public sewer - there could be a 1/2 mile run of private sewer to another public sewer. This is one of the stupidities of drainage searches.

Our mortgage lender refuses to release the money until the responsibility has been handed over, otherwise we would be held responsible for any problems.

I doubt it is actually your lender, more likely the solicitor is who is being incredibly overcautious on the lender's behalf, but as I have demonstrated this is all illogical.

Does your solicitor know where this piece of unadopted sewer is and how long it is?